A typical modern building has installed on its interior walls, ceilings, partitions and so on many kinds of attachments. Examples include smoke/fire sensors and alarms, temperature sensors, vibration sensors, and sprinklers. The exact position of such an attachment is sometime unimportant. For example, the exact position on a ceiling where a smoke detector (or a sprinkler) is installed is unimportant provided that the attachment can be easily connected to the power network (or a water pipe) and it position meets specified guidelines that can be verified visually or with the help of simple tools (e.g., rulers).
In contrast, for some other kinds of attachments, the exact positions of where they are installed, down to centimeter or millimeter accuracy, is important. Examples include vibration sensors used to detect unwanted vibration around vibration sensitive objects and location beacons used to provide data on exact positions within the building. Even some decorative objects need to be attached/installed at correct positions. Without the help of an installation position pointer such as the one provided by this invention, the task of pinpointing the exact physical position of each attachment in the building based on the position specified by architectural and interior design plans and construction blueprints is tedious and error prone and often too demanding to be carried out on site by typical workers who install/attach such objects. When there are hundreds and thousands of attachments (e.g., location beacons and vibration detectors) to be installed in a large building complex (e.g., a transport hub and a factory), the installation cost can be prohibitively high. Furthermore, in such cases, it may entail verification by professionals after installation. The process of verifying that every attachment is installed exactly at its specified position is also extremely demanding and costly without the help of a good tool.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide workers with an easy to use position pointer. It is an installation tool that can pinpoint the correct three-dimensional (3D) position of each attachment on or in the building and indicate to the workers of the correct position visually when given the installation position data of the attachment.
It is necessary to provide a position pointer using which the 3D installation position of each attachment specified by the architectural plan and blueprints of a building can be easily determined and is pointed to visually at the site of the installation.
It is also necessary to provide an installation position database system to provide 3D position data to a position pointer for pointing the positions in a building.
It is also necessary to provide a position determination system to provide three-dimensional position information to a position pointer for pointing the positions in a building.